The Match belongs to Afridi but Malik batted Well

[haroonrasheed320]

The technique & skills required for spin bowling was on show when Malik was batting the way he rotated the strike to Afridi it allowed Afridi play his game after we lost two early wickets he held his responsibility & played his ROLE upto the mark, if he had collapsed or tried something funny Pakistan would have been 3 down very early which might have prompted Afridi to play the funny strokes & throw his wicket, Fawad Alam played his role saved nearly 10 runs & produced a run out which made it impossible for SA to win I know he bowled bad but that was not his mistake it was YK's mistake to bring him on, is gonna miss some bonus thx mate saved sum money for Pakistan cricket (thank God he did not got heeeis team)

[Golden arm]

I agree fully, Malik played a very valuable knock , whcih really helped afridi to play with some freedom.
Without Maliks innings , i think it would have been much more difficult to post even 150 runs on the board.

i have a gut feeling, malik will be more precious in final playing with much more ease and freedom.

[kingusama92]

Malik showed great character with the bat today and Younis showed great trust in him. Also, he took a fantastic catch to take out Jacques Kallis at the end of the game.

[Amir]

Afridi man of the match but so many played their part

Akmal got the innings off to a start and showed the intent we need.
Afridi - enough said
Malik - this is where so many teams get undone by SA...their spinners have been fantastic but this time we saw them out while getting runs. The platform was there, just not launched. Also fielding good.
YK - good captaincy barring one slip up
Gul - What else can I say?
Aamir - didnt fantastic even after razzaq got hit
Ajmal - per usual

Afridi was amazing and he got amazing team support at the same time.

[Inswinger]

Malik's knock was tremendous. At the moment it looked as if he was wasting overs but batting against them was difficult. Just look at the last 5 overs.

[sohaibsyed]

it was funny when malik took the catch wasim's commentating on how everyone was so "cool"

[siddharth]

Afridi was the star .But i will remember this match for Gul's death bowling .U cannot see more brilliant display of death bowling underpressure than that .

Pure class high class bowling .I went speechless.

[pacman]

Malik was very good. You could see that the pitch was difficult to bat on. Malik looked to turn the strike, he used his feet, even though they didn't give many runs, but he did the right thing.

Afridi was just in that mood. If he can keep his head and bat like this more, then we will be hard to beat. But we have wished this so many times for Afridi. I hope he still can produce the goods in the final.

I loved seeing Botha being dismissed by Afridi, that was just outstanding. Botha have squeezed the runs from every other team and taken crucial wickets, but Afridi just launched into him

[Sparhawk]

I'd give Malik a C for his batting.. he was too slow. 34 in 39 in a T20!! We only have 120 deliveries to play with we can't afford so many dot balls

[undisputed]

no way malik wasnt good with his batting the score was below par it was the excellent bowling that made us win not the batting! malik's slow innings prevented players like Misbah from batting.

[the_game]

THAT was a good inning?

[abc_to_xyz]

Well Khalid Latif is still better then Shahzaib!

[kingusama92]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk I'd give Malik a C for his batting.. he was too slow. 34 in 39 in a T20!! We only have 120 deliveries to play with we can't afford so many dot balls

The pitch was really tough to bat on ... just look at the last 5 overs, we couldn't muster a single boundary. I'd spare him on this one today because he showed class by scoring 34 runs.

[Sparhawk]

Originally Posted by kingusama92 The pitch was really tough to bat on ... just look at the last 5 overs, we couldn't muster a single boundary. I'd spare him on this one today because he showed class by scoring 34 runs.

The pitch is no excuse, Afridi and Akmal batted freely. The least Malik could have done was score run a ball.. he was struglling to even take singles despite the field being spread out.

In the last 5 overs without a single boundary we still had a better strike rate than Malik.

[azfar wali]

Malik's innings were crucial if he had gotten out early there might have been a collapse as we already lost two early wickets.

[saj786]

afridi stand out batsmen and bowler full stop

[haroonrasheed320]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk The pitch is no excuse, Afridi and Akmal batted freely. The least Malik could have done was score run a ball.. he was struglling to even take singles despite the field being spread out. In the last 5 overs without a single boundary we still had a better strike rate than Malik.

Afrid batted freely but how about AB, Smith, Gibbs, Younis, Razzaq Malik played the role of a savior this wat a class batsman is all about

[pacman]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk The pitch is no excuse, Afridi and Akmal batted freely. The least Malik could have done was score run a ball.. he was struglling to even take singles despite the field being spread out. In the last 5 overs without a single boundary we still had a better strike rate than Malik.

You must hate Malik no matter what he does. He played well on really tough pitch to bat on. He rotated the strike, and gave Afridi the confidence to go for it, which worked really well for us today. Give the guy some credit. He scored 34 runs. Gibbs, De Villers and even Smith couldn't score freely.

And what about Razzaq. It is very unlike him to not have a better strike rate. He can be excused for not playing international cricket for a while, but still he was there for quite some time and IRC he didn't get a single boundary. I am not critisizing him for that, just accepting that the pitch was difficult to bat on.

And what about Kallis. He really had to find dig deep to get those runs. In the end, it was a good knock from him, but you must be able to see how difficult it was, even for him. And he is a class player, isnt he?

[Geordie Ahmed]

Im a fan of Malik and have defended him many times - i dont for a second believe he deliberately bats badly BUT his innings annoyed me today - yes it worked out at the end BUT at the time it was just so blurghh, there was no urgency and he was just prodding along

[srh]

Malik score 34 off 39 balls with a strike rate of 87.17. Thats not good. These are Butt's kind of numbers.

[Zaz]

It was good in middle, needed a bit of stability

Prob was at death

No probs with maliks knock

[Sparhawk]

Originally Posted by pacman You must hate Malik no matter what he does. He played well on really tough pitch to bat on. He rotated the strike, and gave Afridi the confidence to go for it, which worked really well for us today. Give the guy some credit. He scored 34 runs. Gibbs, De Villers and even Smith couldn't score freely. And what about Razzaq. It is very unlike him to not have a better strike rate. He can be excused for not playing international cricket for a while, but still he was there for quite some time and IRC he didn't get a single boundary. I am not critisizing him for that, just accepting that the pitch was difficult to bat on. And what about Kallis. He really had to find dig deep to get those runs. In the end, it was a good knock from him, but you must be able to see how difficult it was, even for him. And he is a class player, isnt he?

Kallis, Duminy and Younis all took their strike rates over 100 after they had settled in. I like Malik as a batsman and i think he is a class player, but he was struggling out there and there wasn't enough urgency from him except the last few deliveries. Its been the same problem with Misbah in this tournament not enough urgency.

[observer1]

Decent knock, nothing brilliant, but decent considering two quick wickets went, and Afridi was at the other end.

If he can only find the next gear, he could be one of the best at T20.

[Zaz]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk Kallis, Duminy and Younis all took their strike rates over 100 after they had settled in. I like Malik as a batsman and i think he is a class player, but he was struggling out there and there wasn't enough urgency from him except the last few deliveries. Its been the same problem with Misbah in this tournament not enough urgency.

He played a decent knock, he contributed a good score, it was pretty much a run a ball wots the prob?

He gave strike to afridi and did well, lets not have a go but enjoy the moment

[Lethal]

No doubt that match belongs to Afridi. Batting and bowling was in a class of his own.

Take nothing away from the rest of the players - it was a team effort.

Well done Pakistan.

InshaALLAH Pakistan will win the world cup.

[pacman]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk Kallis, Duminy and Younis all took their strike rates over 100 after they had settled in. I like Malik as a batsman and i think he is a class player, but he was struggling out there and there wasn't enough urgency from him except the last few deliveries. Its been the same problem with Misbah in this tournament not enough urgency.

So, the fact that we just lost our 2nd wicket in the 3rd over, did not have anything to do with that? We were off to a good start, but we did not want to loose another wicket before the powerplays were done, did we. And we also did not want their spinners to come on squeeze the runs. Malik is a good player of spin, and even though he struggled for his runs, he did well enough to turn the strike and let Afridi do the damage. Give him some credit.

[zahidakh]

i would say malik, razzaq and younis played well considering they have death overs and fast bowlers to face. they made singles atleast which help pakistan to reach 149.

[Sparhawk]

Originally Posted by pacman So, the fact that we just lost our 2nd wicket in the 3rd over, did not have anything to do with that? We were off to a good start, but we did not want to loose another wicket before the powerplays were done, did we. And we also did not want their spinners to come on squeeze the runs. Malik is a good player of spin, and even though he struggled for his runs, he did well enough to turn the strike and let Afridi do the damage. Give him some credit.

I give him credit for initially forming a partnership with Afridi that is why i gave his batting a C grade and not an F

Let me put it this way.. under normal conditions 45 off 39 is slow in a T20.. but if you come to bat in a crisis its acceptable. 34 off 39 is too slow!! Not to mention a lot of batting was still to come so it wasn't really a crisis.

[Zaz]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk I give him credit for initially forming a partnership with Afridi that is why i gave his batting a C grade and not an F Let me put it this way.. under normal conditions 45 off 39 is slow in a T20.. but if you come to bat in a crisis its acceptable. 34 off 39 is too slow!! Not to mention a lot of batting was still to come so it wasn't really a crisis.

Somebody has to play a sensible knock

It was a decent knock pity he got out when he did cos he was looking for lot more quick runs

No qualms from me

[Saqlain_doosra]

Originally Posted by siddharth Afridi was the star .But i will remember this match for Gul's death bowling .U cannot see more brilliant display of death bowling underpressure than that . Pure class high class bowling .I went speechless.

So was Wasim and this was a man who himself was brilliant at death and under pressure. I like the way he was admiring Gul's bowling

[saeed-sohail]

Originally Posted by haroonrasheed320 Afrid batted freely but how about AB, Smith, Gibbs, Younis, Razzaq Malik played the role of a savior this wat a class batsman is all about

YK scored 18 ball 24 against some of the best death bowling but it was Razzaq who struggled for 11 of 15 hence we were 10 runs short on the other hand malik was woefully out Of touch when afridi made it look so easy at the other end.This is so called best player of spin we have with a strike rate of below 90 when rest of the team had a strike rate of 150+. This non talent could have cost us the game.

[Sheikh_Chilli]

What we (re)learned from today's T20 Semi-Final with SA:


(1) In a crunch situation, Akmal's hands turns to rubber
and his brain to blubber.

(2) Younus and Malik have perfected the art of wasting
balls in the middle of an innings. They don't even have
the strength in their arms to put the ball behind the ropes.
Add Razzaq to this group.

(3) Aamir is a putz and a klutz with the ball in the field.
Absolutely no hand-eye co-ordination. He needs EST.

(4) Afridi is a natural fighter, who leads by example and
infuses confidence in others around him and is the last
one to lose his head in the field.

(5) Razzaq, most likely has his best days behind him. He
was showing his old colors with the ball and the bat, ie;
absolutely insipid.

(6) Younus is a terrible captain. Giving that over to Fawad
and the last one to an unproven 'sensation' is just nuts.

(7) Misbah is a great fielder and performs well under pressure.
.
.
.
Sheikh 'On A Wing And A Prayer' Chilli

[pacman]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk I give him credit for initially forming a partnership with Afridi that is why i gave his batting a C grade and not an F Let me put it this way.. under normal conditions 45 off 39 is slow in a T20.. but if you come to bat in a crisis its acceptable. 34 off 39 is too slow!! Not to mention a lot of batting was still to come so it wasn't really a crisis.

You have your opinion, giving him a C. Fair enough.

I just thought he did well enough under the circumstances.

Malik had a strike rate of 87 which is below par under normal circumstances. But look at some of the other players:

Razzaq: 80.00
G. Smith: 71.42
AB Devillers: 20.00
Morkel: 50.00

Devillers and Morkel didn't face that many bowls, but even Duminy had a strike rate below 100 before the last over when do or die was the situation. Shouldn't he have had a better strike rate given that he had scored just 29 from 33 balls.

[saeed-sohail]

and you are an attention seeking sado who craves abuse(and thats what you will get)shaikoo.

[reverse swing]

QUOTE=Rizwan25]Its gona be one sided game people...pakistan all out at 145...SA wil chase in 17 over for 4...[/QUOTE]
your prediction was wrong pal pakistan zindabad

[Zaz]

Originally Posted by Sheikh_Chilli What we (re)learned from today's T20 Semi-Final with SA: (1) In a crunch situation, Akmal's hands turns to rubber and his brain to blubber. (2) Younus and Malik have perfected the art of wasting balls in the middle of an innings. They don't even have the strength in their arms to put the ball behind the ropes. Add Razzaq to this group. (3) Aamir is a putz and a klutz with the ball in the field. Absolutely no hand-eye co-ordination. He needs EST. (4) Afridi is a natural fighter, who leads by example and infuses confidence in others around him and is the last one to lose his head in the field. (5) Razzaq, most likely has his best days behind him. He was showing his old colors with the ball and the bat, ie; absolutely insipid. (6) Younus is a terrible captain. Giving that over to Fawad and the last one to an unproven 'sensation' is just nuts. (7) Misbah is a great fielder and performs well under pressure. . . . Sheikh 'On A Wing And A Prayer' Chilli

Dont slit ur wrists will u?

[IMMY69]

malik didnt bat well, he batted superbly given the circumstances....

anyone who thinks differently has absolutely no clue about cricket.

[feather]

Originally Posted by IMMY69 malik didnt bat well, he batted superbly given the circumstances.... anyone who thinks differently has absolutely no clue about cricket.

I couldn't agree with you more.

Cricket is cricket and the basics here are the same. There is a reason why teams keep losing matches because everyone seems to think every match should be 180 plus.

This is two way street my friends. We are so proud of Gul because he bowls those wonderful yorkers and hardly gives any runs at the death. Yet we expect our batsman to hit boundries against two top bowlers at the death...the other team is playing to win as well.

Malik did say the ball wasn't coming onto the ball well and this was proved in both innings by number of shots getting bottom of the bat.

Like I said the team that sticks to basics [Pakistan] is going to win the most amount of matches in these t20's. Not every single person has to have a strike rate of 100 or above.

When you have one batsman who can stay in score runs at run a ball or almost run a ball everyone around him can go crazy. This is how it works.

Someone just needs to have a great day not everyone.

[Savak]

Malik batted well in the circumstances. But still Pak is not taking full advantage of the depth in their batting. The batters should seriously start taking risks from overs 12-20. Razzaq and Misbah need to come in higher than YK.

[feather]

These are my two cents.

T20 isn't batsman friendly as ODI are regardless of what people first thought. In this version of the game the batsman has to keep taking risks in order to score above eight an over.

With unreliable openers Pakistan has always suffered because if your two down in the 3rd over the batsman coming in won't take the risks and by the time these guys get out your in critical part of the game where a fall of the wicket can cost you the match because it can introduce full collapase or makes sure the new batsman don't hit too many runs.

Luckily for Pakistan Kamran is a good choice up the order and the new guy can hit few boundaries as well before giving his wicke away. If the openers can give us a decent start on Sunday and if we are down by 2-3 wickets in the 11-12th over...this where we need to launch the assult.

Simply go nutts with our batting. I wouldnt' mind someone playing the role Kamran played the other day or Malik today. If someone can score decent amount of runs 40 plus at strike of 100...I will take it while others go crazy with the bat.

[iafzal]

It was a decent inning, he has played like this a few times but the difference is Akmal's 23 of 11 gave us a good RR in the first 4 overs so a slow SR of Malik did not hurt us much.

He did play the difficult overs well but Afridi took over those overs.

[siccric]

I thought Malik batted really well. If you look at the South African spinners record in this tournament, batsmen have even found it difficult to score of them. Barring Afridi, who is a completely different case, Malik looked comfortable against them. He scored at a run a ball against them as well, which others haven't been able to do. I still think he should be brought in whenever the opposing captain brings on the spinners so he can work the ball around.

Oh, and he did show intent today by using his feet regularly. it was good to see

[haroonrasheed320]

Originally Posted by Sheikh_Chilli What we (re)learned from today's T20 Semi-Final with SA: (1) In a crunch situation, Akmal's hands turns to rubber and his brain to blubber. (2) Younus and Malik have perfected the art of wasting balls in the middle of an innings. They don't even have the strength in their arms to put the ball behind the ropes. Add Razzaq to this group. (3) Aamir is a putz and a klutz with the ball in the field. Absolutely no hand-eye co-ordination. He needs EST. (4) Afridi is a natural fighter, who leads by example and infuses confidence in others around him and is the last one to lose his head in the field. (5) Razzaq, most likely has his best days behind him. He was showing his old colors with the ball and the bat, ie; absolutely insipid. (6) Younus is a terrible captain. Giving that over to Fawad and the last one to an unproven 'sensation' is just nuts. (7) Misbah is a great fielder and performs well under pressure. . . . Sheikh 'On A Wing And A Prayer' Chilli

Sorry mate i don;t agree it was a team effort 7 all of these players played good cricket

[shahidrazzaq]

As said before in this forum, Malik is always playing good. But just silently. No one recognizes his good innings that he has played. Malik used to be considered as a hitter. If he still had that talent, Pakistan would be even better than they already are. He is a big influence on our team.

[Waseem]

He was wasting a few deliveries but we could have collapsed from that position so he did what was required at that time and it surely helped Afridi to play freely.
Even more impressive was Malik's fielding, couple of his throws from the boundary reached Akmal before batsman could even think about running the 2nd one. He also took a good catch to get rid of Kallis and loved Wasim Akram's comments about Malik's catch :The moment i saw Malik at the boundary, i was COOL".

And the ONE over he bowled went for only 5 or 6 runs which also helped.

Well done Malik, good to see him getting some sort of form.

[Blistering Barnacle]

The Malik detractors are basing his innings on the stats of 34 off 39 balls.

But you can't look at his innings stats in isolation.

There was Afridi at the other end firing away.

The partnership was what counted, especially given the fall of a couple of quick wickets, and together they really made it count.

If Malik had tried to score faster and gotten out, Afridi may have come under further pressure and given his wicket away slogging.

That would have completely changed the course of the match, because Afridi's innings was vital to the victory.

I thought Malik played a solid knock.

[IMMY69]

Originally Posted by Savak Malik batted well in the circumstances. But still Pak is not taking full advantage of the depth in their batting. The batters should seriously start taking risks from overs 12-20. Razzaq and Misbah need to come in higher than YK.

savak, i dont think you grasping 20/20 cricket...there is a reason why pakistan are into the second final of the tournament and why teams like aussies, england keep getting knocked out...THE simple fact is that it is not about just slogging and going all out..its about assessing the wicket and getting to a toal you feel you can defend...i assure you that if pakistan had absolutely gone for it from the 12th over yday they would not have even made 149...

if you were posting on the this site when pakistan were playing new zealand...i mentioned severaL times that new zealand are playing far to aggresivley and if pakistan hold their nerve then new zealand could play staraight into our hands....and they did...

england too have made the same mistakes....

[*sallu*]

I'm not taking anything away from malik, but he played way too many dot balls early on

[pakcricketfan]

Afridi was the star with the bat..But Malik did really well to support him. He played a valuable innings and kept things together. He also took a good catch. All in all, it was really good to see Malik finally batting well and contributing to the team.

[*sallu*]

Each and every player in the 11 has contributed in some way to the team, and that is good to see
Even f.alam got the crucial run out morkel

[Uzi]

Malik supported Afridi well, but in this form of the game you cannot afford to waste deliveries.

Batsmen should be going at a run a ball at least. He needs to improve his strike rate.

[cricwiz]

Before the semi-finals there were rumors that Malik & Misbah are conspiring against the interest of the team. Even after the semi-finals people had criticised Malik for his batting.. when he made 30 odd runs (at slightly less than run a ball)

But to me, Afridi was the man of the moment in both semi-finals & final but Malik played really well with him. On both occasions their plan was simple i.e. to rotate the strike consistently, and let Afridi to hit whenever there is a chance.

At the end of final, Malik told on TV that he asked Afridi to just stay at the wicket, because then he would also be able to score some runs.

[pakcricketfan]

Malik played really really well!! His running between the wickets is too good! We saw the original, the real Malik in the final..Being a senior player, he took responsibilty and (along with Afridi) made sure Pak reach the finish line!

[Waq]

These two have reminded me of how Yuvraj and Kaif used to play for India a few years ago.

Lots of singles and twos and then Yuyraj used to hit out whilst Kaif carried on rotating the strike.

I am also pleased that they seem to have a genuine understanding and friendship. I hope this stops the media striing with our players. The smiles and hugs and hand shakes was as pleasing to watch as our performance.

[KA$H]

people need to realise batting is about creating partnerships

how many of afridi's 1s were turned into twos due to Shobby's running between the wkts?

i say well done malik - played for the team not the glory

salutes

[SameerM]

NOT forgetting AKMALS and Shazaibs opening stance!!!! without the base these middleorder guys cud do nothing